CRM Software Recommendations

A friend (customer) has asked for a CRM solution. The project is a bit complex. They don't have a CRM right now. They have a few in-house applications that cover parts of the CRM but that are not integrated between them.

I've thought of Jacada or something similar, but they also want to integrate the DBs they have (4 or 8) into one single centralized DB. And have some parts of CRM that are not implemented. They'll want to have very few call center agents, but they also have about 70 distributed shops that will act as agents also.

You want to go for web based or window based?
How many users you are looking for?
Hosted or on premise solution?
Will the subagents be using CRM? And if yes then what module they will
be using?
Do u have another application that needs to be integrated with new CRM?
What modules of CRM are you looking for?

Incase you need to know more about it you can mail me at
email@removed

We are Ranbaxy Promoter Company and Microsoft partner in India for
Microsoft CRM. We have done many successful implementations in India.
And if you are already using and having Microsoft products, Microsoft
CRM is one the best suitable for you.

I suggest that you take a step back and define the overall needs and scope.
You need to look into your overall data warehouse architecture for the sys
tems you mentioned. DWA involves integrating all your data needs from multi
ple systems, ETL processes, data quality and reporting tools. Your success
in selecting and implementing a CRM solution requires a careful look at you
r overall data warehouse architecture.

> From: email@removed To: email@removed Date: W
ed, 9 May 2007 09:42:00 +0000> Subject: [crm-select] New CRM needed. (Askin
g for recommendations)> > > > Hi all,> > A friend (customer) has aske
d for a CRM solution.> > The project is a bit complex. They don't have a CR
M right now. They have a few in-house applications that cover parts of the
CRM but that are not integrated between them.> > I've thinked of Jacada or
something similiar, but they want also to integrate all the DB they have (4
or 8) into just one single centralized DB. And have some parts of CRM that
are not implemented.> > They'll want to have very few call center agents,
but they also have about 70 distributed shops that will act as agents also.
..> > Wich CRM Software do you recommend?> > Regards.> > > > > > >

hiii,
with the given specifications of your client its not very clear as to what
all existing systems they have .But I would suggest you for PeopleSoft CRM
Ver 9.0 for your client .There are multiple reasons to arrive at such a
decision.
1.Unlike any other CRM Peoplesoft CRM is having all the modules of:
**marketing**sales**ordercapture**support **fieldservice and helpdesk for
all the modules.
2.Integration which is one of the core issues can be taken care by the
peoplesoft integration broker technology .More over from the Ver9.0 of
peoplesoft Oracle has introduced the SOA based middleware
"FUSION".Integration is expected to be lucid like never before.
3.Customizations are easy to tailor and carry out.
4.excellent reporting tools with the Interactive report and the oracle's
proprietarytool for reporting XML publication.
5.Most of the customizations are setup based so readily can be done by some
one who is aware of the productand its architecture.
6.PSCRM ver9.0 gives the 360 degree view of the customer under
consideration with all the major transactions in the same screen.This gives
the Inside agents ,call center executives a clear history of the
transactions.
7. Integrations with the IVR tools Helps the call center agents with a
proper on time customer's insight.

I suggest that they first prototype the kinds of reports they
wish to create and distribute using Visokio Omniscope...they can
join data from all existing sources, create interactive visual
reports and distribute them for feedback very quickly. Letting
everyone see the data, what can be matched and what is missing
is a big benefit...this will put the gaps versus the
requirements in sharp relief. You can then begin to address the
target architecture behind the reporting interface, but you will
get rapid benefits to sustain the initiative.

Otsumo,
Based on your request for some recommendations, many CRM providers would fit the need of centralizing your friend's info. With the approximately 70 shops acting as agents, a web-based/hosted solution would likely be the best way to go, access from anywhere, anytime.
You mentioned that they want to integrate all the DB they have into one centralized DB - do they wish to simply gather all of the info from these various DB's and import it all into the new CRM and stop using the old DB's, or would the CRM act as one central way to access that information (meaning they continue to use the many DB's and have them all linked to the CRM)?
As far as removing features of a CRM platform goes, I would think most CRM providers would do this for you but you might want to make sure you can use this functionality down the road in case it is warranted later in life.

I'm sure many would assume I am biased toward the company I work for, but I don't respond to posts on ITtoolbox unless I think the user's needs match what Salesboom has to offer. Based on the info provided in your post, I would recommend a hosted solution (which Salesboom is), with the ability for the user to remove features on their own, as well as return those features on their own (which you can do with Salesboom), and depending on whether your friend will be scrapping the old Databases or keeping them, a CRM solution with user friendly importing tools and/or good integration with existing databases for automated imports in real time(of which Salesboom has both). I hope this helps a bit no matter who you select for your CRM needs, if you would like more info on Salesboom, please contact me through ITtoolbox or directly.

1. PeopleSoft CRM has the best integration capability, which make it easier to integrate all your legacy systems.
2. Good choice for large-sized companies.
3. Aslo if you use 9.0 version, it'll be quite convenient to migrate to next generation middleware and application - Fusion.

Let me demystify both of these statements:
First of all PeopleSoft cannot be easier to integrate with other legacy
systems, since it is a legacy system. Oracle will not continue investing
into it much longer and PS is being treated as a cash cow.
Secondly, of course you will be forced into Fusion at some point really
soon. Until that time - consider yourself a cash cow and get ready to be
milked. And then get ready to abandon everything you have built in
PeopleSoft and buy Fusion and start all over again. It will NOT be easy.
It cannot be easy migrating from software which you spent years
customizing and which was recently acquired - to yet proprietary brand
software. Oracle wins.

It is interesting to see when management of large companies will stop
playing golf with Oracle salesmen and start thinking what's really best
for their companies, employees and stakeholders? I think this day is
coming soon.

Steven Yaskin
Chief Technology Officer

Queplix Corp.: Open Source Customer Care
Our CRM Resuscitation software is now available for PeopleSoft and
Siebel customers!

the best investment may be a web application that is easily
integrated into your legacy system. Using SOAP and XML you may
extend the value of your legacy system and get maximum crm and
sales value. this is our approach, please do not tear out your
legacy or use a big bang approach. Simple architecture like our
java CRM can easily integrate ERP, or other CRM data. For
example, we have clients that are distributing shipment, order,
and payment data to manufacturers reps and distributors. this
data resides in ERP and is now distributed using the dataforc
web app.
In many ways, dataforcecrm is webservices, our tool is open to
all DBs and operating systems.

One very good fit for us is legacy CRM that is too hard to use, too hard to
get data into etc. We provide our web application which is easily used by
sales people, channel partners, reps, affiliates etc. and data can be
collected, and made usable to legacy.

another fit is for corporate extranets, with our revenue mgmt, we can
distribute sales data like pos, and commissions, shipments and orders to the
sales channels cutting admin cost, letting channels do self service.

Jim, thanks for the reply, I was thinking web services in terms of the
legacy replacement or augmentation.
I am interested in this since my company pioneered the legacy
replacement in easing migration to the open source CRM and I thought
that there is another idea :)
We have two products - QueWeb is a full featured customer care suite
with all featured and more found in modern crms. The other is the
product that "crawls" through the metadata of the legacy CRM and
converts it automatically to the our open source platform. The data
migration is eliminated; all custom and standard scripts and stored
procedures are converted into Java. Even screens are converted into
HTML. You can use this conversion tool as standalone product to help you
ease your larger customers from legacy into your product as well. We
strongly believe that open source and elimination of vendor dependency
is the way to go into the future of the CRM.

- Salesforce allows you to do very extensive customization and 3rd party application integration with little or no real
programming - so our projects are more focused on business process design, data analysis, and user adoption
- the Salesforce on-demand model accelerates the implementation since it takes all of the IT infrastructure headaches off the
table (server/db install, backup, security, etc.)
- Salesforce delivers lots of new functionality in each release (3-4/year) - and since all of their customers upgrade at once, their architecture has to ensure backwards compatibility of your customizations

Whatever application you decide- good training is critical to the
success of the implementation and end-user adoption. When your
friend is ready to start putting a plan together- tell him to
reach out and we can help create a dynamic, engaging training
plan on-time and within budget. Good luck!

Hi
Re the 70 distributed shops-what is the nature of customer contact? Walk in,
phone in , mail in or whatever?
If they are looking for a centralized database, with few call center agents,
this is critical. The business process needs to be clearly understood.
Beyond that, its no big deal whether they go for Siebel, Soffront or
whatever-its an issue of client specific customization.
Pl do not hesitate to contact me if you need more dope on this
Rgds, Milind

Oracle Siebel CRM OnDemand is the only hosted solution with a built in Call Center. Company can provide email, voice mail, voice support without taking the pain of making their own contact center infrastructure.

This email finally did it for me. I usually don't get involved and argue
with consultants pushing apps that Oracle gobbled up like Siebel and PS
or Microsoft CRM resellers. But claiming that Earth is flat and there is
no other call center hosted software besides Oracle's Siebel - I'm
sorry, but I can't allow you mislead people like this.

Back to basics: Check out any *FREE* web sites that provide unbiased
reviews (stay away from pay per play analysts like 2020software and
Gartner) and you will see that the days of Siebel domination are over.
There are many good CRM and call center software titles, some are
commercial some are open source. Most offer trials and open source
companies free downloads. By all means, work with the consultant who can
provide expertise and invaluable advice and product selection. Make
sure, however, that you turn away anybody who can come in with one
vendor in their portfolio and starts pushing it before even looking at
your requirements. I always recommend to get the consultant who can
provide product selection but not the implementation, this way you know
you get the best selection. Then after the product is selected based on
your specific criteria, sub-contract implementation or go with the
vendor's services team (they are usually the best).

Hope it helps.
--Steve

P.S. I know my reply will ignite a storm of fiery Siebel consultants'
emails.. Good :) Even more to my point. In my 15 years in CRM field I
learned to stay objective and don't give in into the "we are the biggest
so buy from us" sales pitches.

Keep in mind, the "Giants" are the ones that put millions into R&D, have a
customer base in the thousands that offer a diverse set of feedback that ge
ts productized based on industry demand, and are relatively stable as far a
s a vendor partner goes so you do not need to worry about them going belly
up and leaving you with an unsupported product.

If you are a small org
anization with limited CRM needs then look mid-market. But keep in mind th
e "Giants" offer mid-market versions of their offerings. If you represent
a large organization with complex needs and a multitude of legacy systems t
hat house data that needs to be in the CRM system, then you should probably
lean towards the "Giants" as they will have had much more experience with
this.

There are trade-offs, definitely. Ulitimately, you need to weig
h the risk adversity of your organization SPECIFICALLY your CFO. If he or
she is risk adverse, then you should look at one of the "Giants". If your
CFO is a risk taker and on the cutting edge, then look at niche or open sou
rce. After all, your CFO has to write the check, it doesn't really matter
what you think at that point.

First of all,I have been in the same business from a long time now. I have
seen a lot of companies coming and going. So what was the problem with
them? were they compromising on quality or lacking technology? i guess the
answer is no. The real deal is the crediblity, i mean the big companies are
in the business from decades now and still growing stronger. Particularly,
picking up Siebel..On-Demand version has already a "contact Center"
feature enabled in it, not mentioning its Marketing, Sales and customer
service feature too. All the four features makes the solution very UNIQUE.
So what makes more sense? to spend money on a solution that offers a single
feature or all the organizational features in a single solution? I guess you
are wise enough to judge it.

P.S.- "Giant Companies" did not became "Giant" overnite, it took years of
hard work,perfection and Quality. "Rome was not built in a day". I guess
that makes a statement. As far as acqusition is concerned, the so called
giants only help the little ones to raise, valuing their contribution to
technology!!!
*P*E*A*C*E*

Rome was not built overnight, but it fell overnight, because it failed
to innovate, adopt to new realities and got big and arrogant - just like
Siebel. I think a better analogy for Siebel would be a giant sinking
ship like Titanic. If you're buying your tickets based on the size of
the ship, as well as listening to people who clearly have financial
stake in it and are willing to make false statements, just to pack the
ship, dispite knowing its flaws, If you don't have intellectual honesty
and insight to ask couple of questions: like what happens to all your
Siebel modules when Oracle comes out with something called Fusion and
how much will it cost you to buy a life boat, then you might be just one
of the unfortunate ones who go down with the ship.

Applications Unlimited. Oracle has already committed to supporting all of
it's product lines as long as customers want to stay on them. Fusion is Or
acle innovating to your point, below. The grass may look greener on the ot
her side of the fence, but personally, I'd prefer to stay where the grass g
ets watered.

Rome was not built overnight, but it fell overnight, because it faile
d
to innovate, adopt to new realities and got big and arrogant - just li
ke
Siebel. I think a better analogy for Siebel would be a giant sinking

ship like Titanic. If you're buying your tickets based on the size of

the ship, as well as listening to people who clearly have financial
s
take in it and are willing to make false statements, just to pack the
sh
ip, dispite knowing its flaws, If you don't have intellectual honesty
an
d insight to ask couple of questions: like what happens to all your
Sieb
el modules when Oracle comes out with something called Fusion and
how mu
ch will it cost you to buy a life boat, then you might be just one
of th
e unfortunate ones who go down with the ship.

Yes they committed, so did peoplesoft. And before oracle, peoplesoft
acquired a little company called vantive. They committed to support them
too. Ask a Vantive customer what kind of support they were getting from
peoplesoft and if anyone at oracle even knows what Vantive is.

If you don't believe me, just go to oracle's website and read how long
they have commited to support Siebel. The fineprint says ' 5 years from
general availability date'. If you are running an older version of
siebel I wish you the best of luck. Of course it is much easier to
listen to a guy in a 10,000 dollar suit than to read a fine print, but
if you think that the old corporate mantra that 'noone gets fired for
buying siebel' still applies, I dare you to go ahead and test your luck.
Are you feeling lucky, mr. CIO? :)

A little note on Oracle's Application Unlimited program. If you read the
details -they are only committing to five years of the *latest* version
of Siebel and PeopleSoft from the day it became GA. This means that if
you have version of Siebel which was released in 2003 - you will be
supported only until next year. After that, it will be paid support only
and not for long either (what they call sustaining support). Considering
how many people Oracle kept on the support staff and how many are
leaving Oracle every day - do the math on the quality of the support
next year. Also, not to mention JD Edwards and Vantive, once huge
companies that PeopleSoft acquired and Oracle discontinued supporting
completely. There are a lot of enterprises of all sizes that still run
both without any hope to get support from Oracle or even 3rd party. Same
faith is awaiting PeopleSoft and Siebel when Fusion comes out (even
though it won't be soon probably, but support will go away soon). What I
am saying and what others are awakening to is that nobody is safe when
you are running proprietary software and locked in to a single vendor,
especially Oracle. The writing is on the wall for Siebel and PeopleSoft
customers and it says "you are treated as a cash cow".

Having said that, open source is not perfect for everybody but it is for
many. SAAS is a good alternative also for some. In fact, anything is
better than being squeezed for every dollar without a hope in the
future. SAP is not a good alternative, since you will be in exactly the
same situation as far as vendor lock in. Besides scrapping everything
you have and paying another hefty price tag for SAP, even in the middle
market. Times are changing; you have to stop resisting it and see what's
better for your company, outside of sponsored gold outings and other
perks big companies will throw your way. Care about your customers and
shareholders and think few years down the road; otherwise, you will find
yourself "moo-ing" right into the slaughter house, which is where all
cash cows are taken at the end :)

Debra -- Allow me to take a slightly different position with regard to your
response. You raise a good point but "Bigger is not always Better". In the
CRM sector we are beginning to see a great deal of specialization with
smaller manufacturers beginning to offer vertical solutions for specific
industry sectors. My firm Commence Corporation, has a 20 year track record
in this industry and more than 15,000 small to mid-size companies using my
CRM product, but I bet you never heard of Commence Corporation. That's
because we have been focused in the manufacturing, construction and
furniture industries. You probably never heard of Dendrite either, a large
company servicing the Health Care industry. Analysts like the Gartner Group
and CRM Magazine pay very little attention to companies that offer specific
vertical solutions because we simply don't feed their pockets.

My advice to companies is to stop thinking that CRM is a commodity because
its not. Certainly if your requirements are simply contact management and a
sales forecast then yes, all CRM solutions are the same. We even provide a
general purpose hosted solution for small businesses that sells for $39 per
user per month
which does the same things SF.COM does for less money. In this commodity
sector small business are foolish to pay any more then this for basic
functionality.

However if you have specific work flow and business automation requirements
you need to be working with a company that understands your business and has
experience in your industry. The analysts often ask me if I am concerned
about Microsoft and I simply say no. We have not lost a customer to another
large CRM provider because they simply don't offer the industry specific
functionality and experience that we do. By the way I am the CEO of
Commence -- and often take a look at general purpose forums such as this to
better understand others position regarding CRM.

Beatifully said, I completely second this by Lee (sorry, I think this is
your name?). It is about the unqienuess of your business that is
important, not the fact that Siebel has all 4 modules in one solution.
All of these Siebel modules are so rigid that if you dare to really try
to adapt them to your business processes - you will lose even this
little support you have today as well as future upgrades (which may not
be coming either).

You must compare products head to head based on the features,
extensibility, openness, and least of all, the size of the company. We
at Queplix not only never lost a deal to Siebel, we are successfully
converting legacy CRMs like Siebel, Vantive and Quintus to our open
source code base. More and more CIOs realize that this is the way to go
for them.

As a CIO for a company that is actively using Siebel for our CRM
programs I have to agree that adapting Siebel to your business
processes is difficult at best. Having been in this business
for a long time I think you're foolish to believe Oracle will
maintain all version of all CRM applications and state of the
art levels. I say that having just sat accross the table from
my new Oracle rep who repeatedly stated they would - he began to
hedge when I asked him if all new offerings would be offered in
all CRM packages. You need to read the writing on the wall if
you are running one of the non-Fusion versions.

"With announcements of Oracle Fusion, and more recently Applications
Unlimited, upgrades to current versions and Oracle Fusion continue to
generate questions amongst a diverse customer base. A greater
understanding of customer types (profiles) and their application roadmap
planning approach needs to be addressed. Oracle desires to retain
existing customers and help them better position plans along a
value-driven roadmap toward the new Fusion applications platform.":
http://www.iouc.org/index.php?module=sthtml&op=loa d&sid=s1_005_fusion

That is your writing on the wall. While Oracle sales reps are
desperately trying to sort through the state of *con*fusion - at the end
of the day it will be up to them to persuade CIOs to trash everything
you had worked for years to customize as much as possible and purchase
more Fusion licenses.

It has been the fact for many acquisitions I lived through in this
industry, it is always the same. Oracle is no exception, as they will
not be able to maintain and release new versions of all CRMs they
acquired. They will make money on support as long as you will be willing
to pay; after that they will offer you a "straight migration strategy".
Granted, Oracle's marketing machine is very effective and many CIOs will
fall for the pitch that "straight migration from any legacy CRM to
Fusion" is a turn-key process. If you have ever done this sort of
migration - it's nothing but straight. For the most part, if you have
customized your Siebel or PeopleSoft, even somewhat, you will have to
redevelop everything from scratch. Business processes will have to be
redesigned, data mapped and migrated, users re-trained, database
licenses upgraded, new hardware bought. At the end of the day- you would
be much better off installing Fusion out of the box. Not having seen
Fusion - I bet it would be no different than hundreds of similar
situations that I had participated in over the years. You choices are:
run legacy app until it crashes and burns (if you can afford it), invest
millions into Fusion (after all if you choose that option you still must
believe in "Nobody ever gets fired for buying Oracle"). I have to
mention a third alternative - use Queplix conversion tools from Oracle
legacy to the open source, eliminate data migration and user retraining
and get the ownership of the business processes while gaining a sound
voice among 100-thousand strong Queplix developer community and growing.
This is a way to freedom. You will never be in this situation again. You
will learn the hedging techniques of Oracle salesmen in the news instead
of hearing them from across the table from you.

Steve - you make a bunch of great arguments, but at the end of the day, REG
ARDLESS of what CRM folks choose, they still need to start from scratch. B
usiness trumps IT everday. If the business wants it, the business gets it.
..or else they are out looking for a SaaS/Hosted solution that completely u
ndercuts the role of IT. If it's what the business needs, and it delivers,
sobeit. Unless, you know of the magic button to press that takes you from
Siebel/PeopleSoft/EBS to a Saas/open source/SOA CRM without the need to re
-engineer anything. I'm pretty sure it does not exist.

It is all abou
t risk adversity, to my earlier post. It does not matter what the CTO, CIO
, CEO want if the CFO isn't willing to write the check. Fortunately for th
e "Giants" and unfortunately for emerging technologies, CFO's want exhausti
ve proof points, they want quantifiable benefits. They want to see who has
done it, and what benefits (increase in revenue, decrease in operational e
xpenditures) they received. Soft benefits do not fly. CFO's also like dea
ling with a single vendor...despite the argument of getting "locked in"...C
FO's have incredible leverage when dealing with a single vendor. Also take
into consideration things like reciprocal spend. The new technologies may
have a lot to offer, except at this point they do not have the resume to c
ompete on a large scale. They will eventually, but right now they do not.
Fortunately for the hosted/SaaS vendors, they can hide their bill within a
departmental budget and the CXO's may never see it.
If the results are great, the dept can get kudos for innovating and get th
e organizations blessing. If the whole thing blows up, then nobody above t
he director who gave the ok is ever the wiser.

Oracle is innovating wi
th Fusion. SaaS, Open Source and SOA vendors have begun to innovate with n
ew technologies. Any way you look at it, you are still re-doing what you'v
e done. There is a reason it's called the "bleeding edge"...some part of t
he organization is going to give some blood to adopt a new technology. The
question is who, how visible, and how much blood.

Sriedel' posts paints a somewhat deceiving picture of Siebel
implementations being "problem-free" and adopting Fusion being
"risk-free", while looking at alternative solutions riddled with risks
and hidden costs. I personally think it is the other way around. Fusion
conversion will be the riskier path with many hidden charges and
uncertain implementation paths. Regarding the ultimate decision maker
being the CFO - with tens of millions spent in many cases on Siebel, I
bet many CFOs are weary of what Fusion has in store for them. They
should be. Going to Fusion will not be a straight path. We don't even
know what this "Fusion" product is even going to look like at this
point. I agree that CFOs will have to do a very hard ROI calculations
and see whether or not 1) Investing millions into Siebel's licenses,
Integration and Support brought them the expected return to begin with
2) Whether throwing more millions into Fusion is going to do any better
for their organizations. When a price tag for one solution is in tens of
millions (tested by tens of thousands Global companies) and identical
solution in hundreds of thousands (tested by hundreds of Global
Companies) - Can you tell with any certainty what the final decision is
going to be?

Siebel and now Oracle spend 90% of their budget, not on innovation, but
on Marketing. Oracle has an army of mercenaries whose livelihood depends
on keeping Fusion alive. Hence changing perceptions and stereotypes will
be an uphill battle for many smaller vendors. Whatever happens we have
an interesting couple of years ahead of us.

Actually I know of one such magic button. Well, ok, its no magic.
About three years of hard work went into this and its not perfect,
but there is open source product out there that does exactly that -
converts most of legacy applications into the open source platform (at
queplix.com). Besides the standalone product, they have a set of tools
(QCrawler) that crawl through the meta data of the Siebel or the likes
and extract all business logics without access to any base code or
source code. Then it spits out a complete J2EE/Google GWT based
application on top of the existing database schema, along with all
customized or not logics converted into Java code, screens recreated
using Google GWT which look similar to the original application. I don't
want to pitch queplix in this discussion, its not my intention. But what
I am saying is that innovation based on solving actual problems instead
of creating easy marketing hype - is what's hapenning in the market
today. I don't think queplix would come around if it wasn't for failures
by Siebel and all acquisitions by Oracle. With dozens of enterprises
that already converted as far as I know to open source using qcrawler -
it shows that faced with the real problems CIO has to take
responsibility and actually look at the bleeding edge technology, while
actually saving their as.... sorry, investment into legacy..

The only point is once you are a reseller for a company you do
not have to say that "the ONLY company.." that offer that
solution is mine.. we are not in year 1930 I guess people are
wise enough to try & judge & choose and rate their consultant.

"to spend money on a solution*** that offers a single feature**
or all the organizational features in a single solution? I guess
you
are wise enough to judge it."

** please do not accuse other service providers that they sell
single feature.

*** Just an e.g. Microsoft's customers pay more money than they
should be paying for each product because of Tech Violation
Charges against MS's faults.

It's not making any sense..May be u are not reading or understanding what we
want to say. Resellers are a network.. They are doing a very good
job.. Apart from CRM.. I talk to ERP customers.. ERP add on customers.. OS
Management tools's customers.. All listen to you.. No matter you call on
behalf of a big company or mid size industry specific company.. But person
won't let you know his problem unless u assure him that u have a solution..
When u do marketing.. there is a thin line between comparing
and ACCUSING. Comparision gives u a better visibility.. ***Accusing*** is
not our job. But when you throw the stone

Debra, I think everybody in this discussion tried really hard to
convince you and explain why you are wrong by saying that Siebel is the
only company in the world and etc. But I guess you would like to stick
to usual tactics of throwing back meaningless clichés. Well, good
luck. I hope we convinced everybody else reading this forum and exposed
how wrong Siebel defenders are and stubborn in arguing about simple
things; in fact I am not trying to argue, I am trying to educate by
operating with the facts. I hope this does some service to CIOs and IT
guys out there :)

Wisely said by sriedel.. Let the CFO's decide what they select.. Let the
sales number and customer satisfaction level say what is best.. I am just
loving this debate.. Cause it has both type of spekers ..like those who have
objection to everything.. and those who are ready to listen and to ponder..
Lee.. I think concentrating on a particular sector of market is a very good
thing.. where in you know whom to target.. But please let us know what do
you think you will do when you will feel that you need to grow.. Grow
bigger..

Guruji please let us know if you were in solution development ever.. or u
have been consulting all these years...

Credits to all Giant companies and Small companies and Emerging companies..
but do we all realise whoes credit does companies snatch.. Its the primary
level coder.. developer.. We debate on what solution good what bad.. But do
we realise that what pain it takes to make a cRM complete.. U will think why
am i saying this.. Because u people don't realize the complexity of it..
Support is more needed when u know u got hell of problems .. and nothing is
free in this world(not even water) then how can u expect a free support for
lifetime.

So all those representing and Marketing and Selling and Reselling and
Consulting for CRM ..don't forget that develping a cRM solution is not a
joke.. Who does it better has got name .. fame and customers.. Its better to
move from a worthless $00.0000 M CRM to a $100 M CRM.

Wouldn't it be a good idea to first look at the CRM your business is already
using, and audit the use of its options ... to get an idea of what is
currently being used and what is not being used of the functionality offered
by the current product?

Then you can ask the CRM users what are the things they like and don't like
about the current CRM, and follow it up with collecting a wish list of
desired features, functionality amd benefits.

Finally, take a look at the usage patters and usage behaviour with your
current CRM.

Add the operational requirements for CRM - i.e. the people who keep the
thing running, and you will be well on the way ..

By then you should be in a position to create a list of mandatory and
desirable requirements for a CRM.

With this info you should be able to put together a RFP.

Take a look at the CRM market, do a smoke test and remove the peripheral
players (i.e. not really CRM apps, just named that way) and the "mom and
pop and their dog" outfits (unless you have a CMM match of course), and make
a list of potential suppliers.

With your list you can issue an RFP to your selected vendors - with the
previso that they provide responses to your mandatory and desirable
requirements.

When (and if) you get proposals back, mark them up based on how well they
score against your requirements. Rank your vendors and chose the ones at the
top of the list - maybe you'll choose 3, or maybe 5 ... it varies. Maybe you
only get 2 who meet the requirements sufficiently well enough.

Invite the "lucky vendors" in to do some in-depth presentations of their
offerings.

The rest of the selection and purchasing process is easy ... just choosing,
ordering and receiving. Then the hard part really begins.

If you really don't know what you are doing in terms of CRM selection, hire
an expert - a CRM consultant with substantial experience of this process,
otherwise you'll only end up paying more, for something that isn't quite
what you need ..

Excellent comments, Martyn, I concur. To add to what you have specified, the
documentation of desired features should contain quantifiable results. For example, the
users should say, if I had xxx it would save me yyyy hours per day. (This is preferred to
comments like "it would save me time" or "I would like this better". If they cannot show
a savings, it is not a benefit.

As to the presentations, have scripts for each lucky vendor to follow to show the
requirements. Leaving the presentation to the vendors will show only the best features of
their offerings instead of how you can use their offering in your business activities.
Lead the vendors through the presentations, in other words.

Here is an additional comment, remember that an expert is a drip under pressure.

StayinFront CRM has alot of experiance taking those disparate
databases and integrating it into their CRM platform to give you
that concise single view. I know they also have a call center
module that you might be interested in. Where are you located?

While going through your requirement specifications, we found
that we have web based comprehensive CRM software that exactly
matches with your requirements and also we can be customized
according to your needs in no time. The system is very user
friendly and configurable. It supports all kinds of databases
and operating systems.
With respect to the project specifications, we found that you are
looking for a highly secured hosted solution. Since we have
significant experience in building multi-tenanted, hosted
solutions and the zRE automatically provides a very high level
of security - much more than any hand-coded mechanism can and
we've integrated with Outlook very tightly for other projects -
again, something that is not simple to do, our solution will be
the best fit for your requirement.
Some of the salient aspects of our Impel CRM solution are:

1. The system is very user friendly and configurable.
2. It can be easily integrated with outlook.
3. The system will be completely browser-accessible, including
any app administrative functions
4. The delivery will run on all platforms, including
Windows-based systems and Linux-based systems, so the prospect
can choose his/her most cost-effective hosting platform to run
on.
5. It will be accessible through Internet Explorer and Firefox
browsers.

Demo

We invite you to login and play around with our CRM solution

Marketing and Customer Support :

Organization name: Marvel

User name: BruceWayne
Password: BruceWayne

Sales:

Organization name: Marvel

User name: ClarkKent
Password: ClarkKent

About PK4

PK4 Software Technologies Pvt. Ltd. is an Information Technology
Products and Solutions Company that delivers cutting-edge
technology solutions by effectively deploying the most current
software development tools and techniques. This translates into
better business productivity, easier deployment, higher
application scalability and an overall lower Total Cost of
Ownership for our customers in India and abroad. For more
details please visit www.pk4.in

Below are some of the projects where PK4 has used zeroCode
successfully.

Microsoft CRM is still not mature and installations have been difficult and
costly. If you have between 10 and 100 people and you want an in-house
solution you can purchase at a reasonable cost look at Maximizer and
Commence Corporation. They are the last two in-house solutions in the $500
to $700 dollar price range.

I've opened this thread long time ago. My friend is starting now the
project. And almost all of your answers were really usefull. I'm near an
expert in Clarify Amdocs CRM. But that solution is not suitable for my
friend's company. Because of that I've asked you.

I'm not sure what solution he is going to use.

The main part of the project was the integration of all the DBs into one.
IMHO they need a datawarehouse more than a CRM. But they also need a CRM.

Right now I'm sure that my friend has readed this thread and have found
answers for lots of questions in your answers.

Perhaps one of the more important issues in this process is: Do they expec
t that these other "databases" will stay in place after "CRM" is put in pla
ce? If so, then they really need to be talking with a consulting firm that
can help them evaluate the use of integration appliances like CastIron, Pe
rvasive or Informatica. Similar concepts but these tools are different. I
f the 'friend" just can't bring himself to envision using a CRM that could
actually replace one or more of these other databases, then an integration
appliance will makes economical sense. A good consultant will help you ask
the right types of questions and get his folks to talk internally. All ena
ble various databases to be interconnected and to maximize each database f
or its own uniqueness without undermining the CRM itself.

> From: email@removed To: email@removed Subj
ect: Re: RE:[crm-select] New CRM needed. (Asking for recommendations)> Date
: Fri, 3 Aug 2007 18:52:12 +0200> > > > Hi all!> > > I've opened this thread long tim
e ago. My friend is starting now the > project. And almost all of your answ
ers were really usefull. I'm near an > expert in Clarify Amdocs CRM. But th
at solution is not suitable for my > friend's company. Because of that I've
asked you.> > I'm not sure what solution he is going to use.> > The main p
art of the project was the integration of all the DBs into one. > IMHO they
need a datawarehouse more than a CRM. But they also need a CRM.> > Right n
ow I'm sure that my friend has readed this thread and have found > answers
for lots of questions in your answers.> > > Best Regards, and thank you all

Sorry if this is redundant but has anyone jumped on this posting yet? How many times do we have to put up with this type of posting before people learn to keep broad brush-stroke, unhelpful, and potentially harmful statements statements to themselves?

Why take a shot at a decent solution by Microsoft right before touting the solution you have a bias toward? Hmmm, I wonder. Maybe it's because despite comments like that companies continue to buy MS CRM, MS partners are selling the heck out of it, and it continues to move up market.

Boy it'd be real easy for me to slag Maximizer and Commence Corporation here wouldn't it? But guess what, it doesn't help the person looking for a solution.

We have three deployments of Siebel in our organization and one
for SalesForce. From our experience I do not recommend trying
to highly customize Siebel the two deployments we have that are
highly customized are costly to maintain, perform poorly and the
TCO is very high.

You need to provide a great deal more information before anyone can provide
you with a appropriate recommendation. You have in a sense asked what car
should I buy. Think about documenting the business requirements first or
engage outside assistance if you are not comfortable.

Larry is correct, it is impossible to present a reliable recommendation based on the information given. As a matter of fact, any suggestion provided in a forum like this will be speculative, at best.

The most sound course of action for you is to determine a budget range (absolute maximum and minimum) and do some soft research on your own. For instance, if there is no way your friend can spend more than $1,000-$2,000, then your best bet is to focus on Contact Management applications. Or perhaps this friend is not willing to bring a system in house or incur a full investment up front, which would direct you towards hosted solutions.

After establishing a focus, contact a group of partners (3-5) that sell and support applications fitting your criteria. If you can find one with a strong background in CRM systems development, you might be able to have them develop a recommendation. Of course, doing this leaves you open to their bias. Otherwise, gather information and make the best decision you can.

If you gather a strong set of Systems Requirements, present them here and I am sure you will get some perspective that will set you off

Even though this thread is a bit old I thought I would interject with a suggestion.

I agree that a budget needs to be drawn up, but a list of required features and 'would be nice to have' features might be in order first, or maybe a little preliminary scouting to see what's out there. This is why:

I might put together a budget of $2000 for my crm system, but I may also have a budget of $1000 for my e-commerce solution, another couple thousand for my accounting software, and a couple thousand for a system for my manufacturing division, because I didn't think about having everything under one system or didn't know these features are available in today's CRM systems.

Now when I go look at CRM systems, if my budget is $2000 and I have ruled out researching those that are priced above this, I might not see that I can get a system that handles my crm, e-commerce, manufacturing, and accounting all for $4,500 instead of the $6000 I would be paying by looking at them all separately.

I suggest you take a look at what's out there (feature-wise) just to make sure you know all of the possibilities, then think of which features you need for your business, and then have other features that would be nice to have and see what the total cost would be.

I prefer to use AVAYA Technology, wich is most advanced
technology fot CC. It's not to expensive and your costumer will
have free hands to grow up their services in the future without
a ned of more investment. And what is most important, Avaya IP
Office support any kind of DB format.

While going through your requirement specifications, we found
that we have web based comprehensive CRM software that exactly
matches with your requirements. The system is very user
friendly and configurable. It supports all kinds of databases
and operating systems. We've integrated with Outlook very tightly for other projects -
again, something that is not simple to do, our solution will be
the best fit for your requirement.
Some of the salient aspects of our Impel CRM solution are:

1. The system is very user friendly and configurable.
2. It can be easily integrated with outlook.
3. The system will be completely browser-accessible, including
any app administrative functions
4. The delivery will run on all platforms, including
Windows-based systems and Linux-based systems, so the prospect
can choose his/her most cost-effective hosting platform to run
on.
5. It will be accessible through Internet Explorer and Firefox
browsers.

Demo

We invite you to login and play around with our CRM solution

Sales:

Organization name: Marvel
User name: ClarkKent
Password: ClarkKent

About PK4

PK4 Software Technologies Pvt. Ltd. is an Information Technology
Products and Solutions Company that delivers cutting-edge
technology solutions by effectively deploying the most current
software development tools and techniques. This translates into
better business productivity, easier deployment, higher
application scalability and an overall lower Total Cost of
Ownership for our customers in India and abroad.
For more details please visit our websites mentioned below.

While going through your requirement specifications, we found
that we have web based comprehensive CRM software that exactly
matches with your requirements. The system is very user
friendly and configurable. It supports all kinds of databases
and operating systems. We've integrated with Outlook very tightly for other projects -
again, something that is not simple to do, our solution will be
the best fit for your requirement.
Some of the salient aspects of our Impel CRM solution are:

1. The system is very user friendly and configurable.
2. It can be easily integrated with outlook.
3. The system will be completely browser-accessible, including
any app administrative functions
4. The delivery will run on all platforms, including
Windows-based systems and Linux-based systems, so the prospect
can choose his/her most cost-effective hosting platform to run
on.
5. It will be accessible through Internet Explorer and Fire fox
browsers.

Demo

We invite you to login and experiment with our CRM solution

Sales:

Organization name: Marvel
User name: ClarkKent
Password: ClarkKent

About PK4

PK4 Software Technologies Pvt. Ltd. is an Information Technology
Products and Solutions Company that delivers cutting-edge
technology solutions by effectively deploying the most current
software development tools and techniques. This translates into
better business productivity, easier deployment, higher
application scalability and an overall lower Total Cost of
Ownership for our customers in India and abroad.
For more details please visit our websites mentioned below.

I strongly recommend that before you start soliciting input for a CRM platf
orm to do a complete study of your business applications and the existing d
atabase architectures. Come up with your BI, reporting needs at corporate a
nd retails stores. once you have done this you may discover your true organ
ization needs, critical success factors and the type of CRM solution you tr
uly need. Else, you will get all sort of people giving you suggestions of C
RM systems that in my opinion means very little based on your description b
elow.

Hello there, pretty much any CRM vendor would be able to get your
friend up and running and all their in-house applications
integrated. It is no problem to have the roughly 70 distributed
shops working from the same database with restrictions to
information set by your friend. Some larger vendors are
Salesforce and Netsuite. They can be expensive and there are
many more like Salesboom.com who provide a very user friendly
platform with all the same features.

Given the distribution of users why would you suggest Goldmine. I think the
reasonable thing here to do is ask for some more requirements. Of the in
house applications, does that functionality have to be merged into the new
CRM system. Merging the Databases, what kind of data, how does it need to be
represented to allow the users to effectively use it. The distributed
offices that act as agents, can they work in online mode through a web
portal or do they need a richer synchronization method. The first thing that
really needs to be done is to understand the needs and then the product
discussions can begin. Otherwise it would lead to a failed implementation
and waste of money.

I will suggest you to evaluate CRM vendors which have modules to cover
almost all business processes.
Go slow and start with 1/2 modules from the suite.
Work on developing connectors with the CRM and the disparate applications.
CRM with API/web services modules will help you in this process. API will be
helpful when you have web and non-web based applications.
Continue for sometime and let the new system get stabilized in the
environment.
Gradually start implementing other modules and phase out the disparate
systems.
One good choice will be Soffront CRM. With its API and Web services it can
really retrofit your existing system.

Again & Again I am stressing in this forum, it is the question of
Methodology during implementation. The success ratios of crm projects
are very low because of Poor implementation & controlling the project
from the client side. Make the process very clear .it enhances the
clarity towards the implementation.
Rigorous evaluation is must before vendor selection but the entire
system depends upon how well your vendor understands the process. I do
agree soffront CRM is a good one but it depends upon the qualitative
implementation not quantative.

I'd like to echo that sentiment by >P.Ramnath. - with my own twist...
CRM is not about software - it's about people and process - if there are
problems there you are merely automating the problems with software so
problems happen faster!! Furthermore most CRM software packages are
"Feature Equivalent" and they all know eachother price - so the varryance is
minimal.
SO - if you must pick a "Software" then look at a bunch find the one
everyone likes the way it looks and feels - that's the one they will use.

Then find the best partner that cares about understanding you and is not
just focused on "closing the deal"
Best of luck - Contact me if you want further assistance
Erik

As long as we're "echoing" I'd like to join in. Erik's comments are "spot on"- almost....
I whole heartedly agree with his comments about the software and the corporate culture being two separate considerations. The software is very much similar with each product having different areas of strength. Picking the one that everyone will actually use is critical, even holds the life and death for CRM's success.
The part I might push back on is the pricing. When total features are compared with total costs it seems that Oracle's Siebel CRM On Demand has decided to win, in part, by being the low price leader. In many cases by as much as 40% less.
However, the price must not be the determining factor. The must-have, show stopper is the user adoption, as Erik stated. As a sales rep for the Siebel CRM OD I'm amazed when companies see our distinct advantages and our lower price but refuse to move because of the disruption to their corporate culture, user environment and actual usage of their current tool. They tend to believe that the change will cause them to loose momentum, embracement from users, and too many 'stumbles' with their teams and customers.
So absolutely, make sure you define internal drivers, habits, tendencies, processes, objectives.....BEFORE you go out into the marketplace to shop software. Having a well defined plan will make the software side go much faster, make choices much more clear, and will ensure your efforts do not fall into the 'dark' side of CRM implementation statistics.
Good Luck!
Tim Ferons
Siebel CRM On Demand
AMX International- Oracle Certified Partner
208-542-8273

Understanding the need is the most paramount. To ensure that the highest
success rate occurs the system needs to feel natural to the end users, and
should be adaptable to include workflows that ease the day to day usage of
the CRM. What are the current tools that the average user needs daily to
complete their tasks, are they adaptable to a CRM process, or need to be
integrated into. Does the data need to flow from.

Price is a very interesting metric to look at, there are several factors to
think about such as base software costs, hardware and infrastructure,
integration and customization costs. CRM is also a very evolutional thing as
such as the adoption rate climbs (usually to tailoring to business needs)
ongoing costs may also occur. Other items to consider are things like
recurring maintenance agreements that may come into play depending on the
vendor. Also look at the specializations needed to maintain the system in
the future as that could be indicative of resourcing costs, and the size of
the resource pool.

I personally support Sage SalesLogix as a FYI. However really believe in the
right tool for the job. If you have any questions on the product and what it
is capable of accomplishing please do not hesitate to call.

Mark:
I am wondering if a "CRM" is the right solution. What are they really trying to
accomplish? Where are their requirements? What are their requirements? Do they know
what their requirements are? I think right now, solutions are not what should be
recommended. I think what should be recommended is understanding their requirements. (In
the diatribe, it appears that are not using all of a system they current have.) It maybe
that a requirements definition and training is all that is needed to successfully utilize
what they already have. But, I am not a salesman.

I guess that depends on the customers' needs. The initial post was new CRM
needed. Sounds like some centralization of process and data is needed. If
this is a full CRM solution that will be the corner stone or if it is some
joining of each of the disparate data sources. A vision statement,
requirements and some form of assessment would establish the right course of
action. These initial steps would be the same when choosing a CRM, starting
a new development project or perhaps any new process in an organization. The
best thing to recommend is that a needs assessment and mapping session is
performed to understand all of the working parts, the vision and corporate
dynamic. Once established if required product selection can then take place.

With Goldmine you may start small with the Premium Version or Grow up to Corporate or Enterprise versions. Mantain all sales force remotely in SYNC and gather feedback from the field in realtime. The Dashboards will impress your top management. Don't guess with the data to take effective and precise descicions when reacting to a constant dynamically changing markets or market.
Customers are constantly changing behaviours respond to them with effective control and command centralized desicions more wisely.
50% of Fortune 500 are using goldmine, over 80 vertical Markets and +40 Countries. HEAT Service & Support integration + Goldsync, iGoldmine /iGoldmine + {Plus}, GM Browser, view info from many Legacy Systems and Databases, Back Office systems and websites, Keep-Retain Effective control over small or Huge Workforces, see on DashBoards how effective your workforce is individually or collectively. Goldmine is not a Fly-By-Night product, and the implementation and Learning curve of the people is critical. Business intelligence, Take command of Campaings by Regions or by product vs potential targeted customers and monitor how effective are those campaings. Evolve to other level with Frontrange VoIP Contact Center, Goldmine IP or other extended functionalities in this direction, Automation, React to Campaings with agreesive speed with total control of time and budget. Solid Rock Team based collaboration. There are Excellent CRMs out there, many of them are High end but you will need a very deep pocket for many of them with an implementation and Learning curve of the users that will take out and consume a lot of Capital along more than 2 fiscal years. The ROI of those products are to be seen very far from the horizon. Consider doing RFI, then learn well the need. Do the RPs and consider Goldmine Seriously.If money and time is no problem, you will have a very nice experiment. But with the Global competition there is no money and time to waste and neither to experiment. Consider Goldmine seriously it's like one solid piece of hard-thick titanium. Success with your project.

Everyone offers a CRM solution which will handle agents and shops, including us. But we would never recommend anything without conducting detailed analysis on current business processes and future business objectives for the next 3-5 years.

The client has several legacy applcations for a reason, time to stop and think I suggest. They may find many of these legacy systems become redundant after open and honest needs analysis, potentially resulting in a far simpler and lower cost solution which will grow and morph with their business.

Hi all!
Steve, you're right, sometimes I've wished that.
By the time I've asked, six months ago, the answers where very helpfull to the friend who has started and is conducting the CRM project in his company.
I'm happy of all the support I've found in this group, I'm a CRM (Clarify) technician, and by the time ny friend asked me for recomendations, i've felt a little lost, 'cause the CRM I know well is not a valid solution for him.
Thank you all again for all the answers.
Hope in a few months, I'll post again with a success history from my friend.

And once you get RFIs back from the top 3 most expensive ones - apply
the same RFI to the open source enterprise packages like queplix.
Compare costs and features, as well as technology and customzation
ability. Make a decision. J

We are an US based Software development firm having offshore development center in India.
We are providing customized software solutions mainly CRM and ERP solutions.
Because if your customer is looking for an ready made products its really very difficult to find out that exact software which will fully satisfied him.Because you mention that he want to integrate 4-8 Db in 1 software.
But before proceed further if possible please disclose the contact details so that we can understand his requirement in a details manner to provide him a best solutions regarding this.
Please visit our site for more details www.sigmainfo.net

Keep the Contact details to yourself. If any vendor or poster interests you
enough for you to move on to the next stage get their contact details and
call them. The last thing you want is the solicitation of 10 of 100's of
vendors muddying up the waters. Fact of the matter is if you are wanting to
integrate all of the internal applications in some manner you will need to
seriously think about self hosting. You will need a higher customization
capability and be able to evolve the solution at a faster pace than may be
possible with some of the hosted solutions. You will also have higher
cohesion between the CRM and applications and will need the integration
strategy laid out before. Chances are priority will be give to the
applications and each will be integrated one at a time to ensure user
adoption remains high and obtainable goals and milestones have been defined.

Again, find the credible vendors that have solutions that can fit (nothing
is perfect) based on your teams need and distribution, contact them and do
any extensive research that way.

We are a Microsoft CRM VAR in the NY area, who has implemented MS CRM in
a number of Client's for the very purpose you are requesting (ie;
consolidating multiple DB's into a single repository). Because MS CRM
provides a lot of flexibility in the area of adding custom tables and
attributes, it is a very straightforward process to map multiple
external DB's to the MS CRM DB. In addition, MS CRM is delivered with a
Software Developer Kit (SDK) which provides web services to post data
into MS CRM. Clearly, your requirements need to be spelled out in more
detail and matched up against MS CRM's feature set to determine if it is
a good fit in other areas, but as a 'data consolidator', I would
recommend it highly.

After researching various software products a large 11billion dollar a year company with 10 different divisions (and databases) and 50 remote offices decided to replace their Telemagic (and various other applications) in an enterprise-wide solution using SalesLogix and had great success doing so. SalesLogix can be run as a remote user, a tethered user or via the web (or all three) and has great integration capabilities.
As others have stated, your listed requirements are a little shy (and most applications could probably fit the bill). Change Process Management will be important with your project (for user adoption), as well as having an experienced partner who has integrated various databases into a single application (as most business partners should have this experience). We just integrated Goldmine and a few 4D databases into a single SalesLogix application recently for another client.
I see, from your requirements that an experienced partner and an application that has a wide range of deployment options are going to be important. I believe that SalesLogix (from Sage Software) could be a good fit for you. There's some pdf files that you can download here if you want to see more what SalesLogix has to offer: http://www.rockymountaincrm.com/Downloads.aspxLance Meacham
Rocky Mountain CRM
www.rockymountaincrm.com

Hello. SalesLogix is a fine solution. CRM tools are just that...tools that facilitate accomplishing a company's ideal situation of accelerating new sales, retaining and growing existing client relationships and providing the consolidated view and reporting that management needs to successfully anticipate what moves it needs to make to stay competitive. If the company requires that their tools be housed internally, you will certainly want to include SalesLogix in your review.
However, you may want to suggest that your friend's company look at a solution that has been significantly more attractive to almost 40,00 other companies. That solution is salesforce.com. There hundreds of saleslogix clients that have made the conversion in the last several years. There are a whole host of reasons each company chooses to leave one product for another. SFDC accomodates some of the largest and most complex organizations around the globe and still does a phenomenal job in taking care of the smallest firms as well.

On-Demand/Saas (Soft as a Service) is taking huge chunks of the CRM market and at an accelerating pace. I would be more than happy to provide an upfront project scoping session for your friend's company at no cost. Sometime just getting the pieces of the puzzle all down on paper and getting all of the "unknowns" out into the light is the hardest part of any movement towards a solution that works best for a company.

Brian G. Connell email@removed
972-865-1460
www.astadia.comAstadia was ranked #83 in Inc Magazine's 2007 list of the fastest growing private companies in America with over 1300% growth in the last 3 years

Dear Brian
I too have a similar query . We want to procure a CRM for our Bank with a
network of nearly 600 branches .
We are contemplating to procure and install a CRM solution.
What do you recommend
Regards
Shadab

Hello Shadab,
Base on your requirement for supporting more than 600 branches, the most fit will be midium to enterprise CRM Software. Such as Microsoft CRM, Siebel, SAP etc. These kind of software not just only have plenty of CRM functions you can use and customize,they also support scalability once your company grow.
Each software will have unique ability, you might have to list what functions / business requirements your company want to achieve from CRM Implementation, then you can start evaluate each software vendor in term of standard functions provided, licensing price and model, integration ability etc.
Hope this can help!!
Amnouy Johnson
Michigan IT Services
http://www.ms-crm-consulting.com

HI,
Based on your req it seems like a mid market system shoudl do the job. we
have many banks in india and around the world who use Sage CRM solution to
manage their CRM requirements. You can contact me for more case studies and
further details.
Thanks
ADS
asingh007@gmail

If you are planning to upgrade from AIX 5.2 to AIX 5.3, which of the above options from question 1 would be most appropriate to select ? Also, list out any features that would allow you to fall back to AIX 5.2, in case the upgrade to 5.3 was not successful.

We me too but it all depends on numbers of users you need and your business needs.
Oracle CRM OnDemand is now the leading CRM in the Market.
Let me know if you have questions on Oracle CRM OnDemand. I would glad to answer the for you
Regards
Satish

Hi Pavel,
I myself was facing this problem. I recently visited a lot of online
semoinars, had a word with a lot many vendors, but finally I am going with
Oracle's Sieble CRM OnDemand. Reason being it almost covers every aspect of
a business, even Call Centers. It has it inbuilt feature, so I do not have
to implement anything extra on hardware switches. I have a vendor who did it
for me, who is an authorised partner. Remember Pavel, Always look for
authorised companies to do it. Let me know if you want any contact details
for a demonstration.
P.S.- The best part is, you do not pay for watching a demo, niether you
commit to buy it. :)
you can reach me by replying this e-mail. email@removed
Regards,
JD Shah

Hello there,
are there any CRM available free which would help managing contacts, upadtes...
My brother has a business (market reserach) in France. For his purpose, he mentioned the difficulties of working with excel ( samples).
What would be his cheapest options.
I assume his needs to insert contacts, have his researchers putting and updating information as one's go along.One of the support funtionality would be the possibility of importing and exporting contacts logged in the database.
Would you have any ideas to help?.
Thanks

I would recommend Zoho or Sage CRM, case handling and knowledgebase functionality. You can set up automatic workflow to alert the relevant support agents you mentioned in the call centre.
Hope this helps
Andrew Wallace
www.crmasiasolutions.com

Dear Friend,
I would suggest please understand the business
requirements very well and make a list of them.
Compare the requirements with the best CRM products
Siebel, SAP, Salesforce.com. These three CRM covers
almost 90 % of the market. Compare the features and
functionalities provided by these CRMs and select the
CRM solution which can be least customize.
Regards
Manoj

I love statements that have a friends customer asked... are you sure its not you ;o)
i am going to go on a whim and suggest something that your users will be able to understand. Whatever it is make sure everyone understands the objectives of the CRM database..
Currently I use Oracle Sales and Makerting IFS, and it works well for my business, but not everyone has the same needs or size business. Things might change as far as what CRM is going to do for my company now with the idea going back to JDE, and I have to say whatever is coming I am excited to use. It seems like every (reputable) CRM that comes out is plus one of the last one...
A few things to keep in mind is data base managment, integration and communication with your other programs ie logistics/orders. I have to say being able to give in depth ROI's really has helped us better allocate over all spending 100%.
If I could suggest web based I would do it. Right now we are not and sometimes reps will not synch and call their customer service rep to enter in the same information and once they synch you now have two of the same account which is a pain because since CRM talks to our back end it creates a duplicate in both places, but it does not work the opposite.
Important that you have a designated person/team for data base management (ie clean up duties) other wise if you let it go for to long you will have another problem to deal with.

Copyright 1998-2015 Ziff Davis, LLC (Toolbox.com). All rights reserved. All product names are trademarks of their respective companies. Toolbox.com is not
affiliated with or endorsed by any company listed at this site.